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As a lover of The Expanse, I recently picked up The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey and ended up binging it in a day while waiting for work. Spoilers ahead.

The book is set on a world inhabited by two competing forms of life: carbon-based organisms introduced by humans around 4,000 years ago, and the native crystalline lifeforms. Just as a team of scientists makes a genetic breakthrough—enabling these very different life forms to coexist—they detect a gravity anomaly that functions as an “Outside Context Problem.”

Now, as a newly subjugated species, the scientists must prove to their new overlords that humanity still has something to offer to the vast, interconnected web of civilizations that make up the alien polity.

As a soft science fiction space opera, I really enjoyed the book. The Carryx, with their striking orange-and-blue morality, are fascinating, and humanity’s attempts to "humanize" them predictably fall flat. I do wish it had been longer—the 400 pages flew by—and the “